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A Look Ahead: Next Week's ETFs to Watch

Thanks to a surprisingly strong July jobs report, stocks surged to finish the week on Friday giving investors some optimism heading into the second week of August. As has been noted, August has not been the best month to own stocks historically, but it is also worth noting that US equity markets have rallied over the past two months.

Still, the U.S. employment situation may be too dire for the world's largest economy to be deemed healthy. In addition, the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank disappointed investors by not announcing more monetary easing programs this week. Considering these two facts, some might deem U.S. equities' upbeat closing impressive.

Without a crystal ball, no one knows for sure where stocks will be a week from today, but some of these ETFs will certainly be in play next week.

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Broker-Dealers Index Fund (NYSE: IAI)
Plenty of attention was paid to the impact the Knight Capital Group (NYSE: KGC) imbroglio had on ETFs.

Not much attention was paid to the ETFs that actually hold shares of the embattled market maker. IAI holds a small allocation (0.73 percent) to Knight, but this ETF is exclusively devoted to capital markets firms. Will a buyer for Knight emerge from IAI's lineup or will the ETF be hampered by lingering issues surrounding the company?

WisdomTree Equity Income Fund (NYSE: DHS)
The WisdomTree Equity Income Fund would not likely impress anyone with its historical volume. The fund was up just half a percent this week, but there is more to the story. DHS features a distribution yield of 3.8 percent and is loaded with the types of conservative stocks investors are embracing in a rocky market environment. In the past month, DHS has outperformed the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSE: VIG) and the iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index Fund (NYSE: DVY).

PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio (NYSE: SPLV)
In April, a few weeks shy of the fund's first birthday, the PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio had $1.6 billion in assets under management. As of market close Friday, that number had swelled above $2.3 billion, according to PowerShares data. Indeed, low volatility ETFs are becoming increasingly popoular.

iShares MSCI Philippines Investable Market Index Fund (NYSE: EPHE)
Despite slowing growth throughout the emerging world, there has been plenty of chatter that emerging markets ETFs are starting to show signs of life. If that is indeed true, investors may be best served choosing a fund that has been a relative strength leader, rather than bottom-feeding among an array of oversold ETFs.

EPHE has been a leader, implying that when emerging markets are once again embraced, this ETF will be an upside leader. A couple of strong days to start next week could send the lone Philippines ETF to a new 52-week high.